Cape floristic region, South Africa

Abstract

The highly diverse and unique Cape Floristic Region near the southern tip of South Africa has been a productive testing ground for evolving systematic conservation planning techniques. As protea plant species ranges contract, expand, and shift in response to climate change, new reserve selection methods are needed to account for this dynamism. Conservation planners are applying cutting-edge methods for integrating climate change species-distribution models into the design of connectivity and protected areas in the Cape Floristic Region. These modeling advances, when linked to specific land-use policies and opportunities for acquisition, provide a promising basis for implementing a set of actions to make conservation in the Cape robust to climate change.